What do you do when your follower melts down or cannot follow a pitch?

1 – Don't do multi-pitch routes with someone who is inexperienced until you have climbed with them enough to get a feel for what you can expect from them.
2- If you don't know the person well, do routes with anchors on every pitch that can be rapped from anchors.
3- If you do end up a few pitches up with someone who becomes either psychologically or physically impaired, decide whether pushing / helping them to continue might be safer than rapping.
4- If you have someone with climbing weaknesses, bring a second rope or at least a cordalette, and leave it with a series of big overhands on bights through crux sections – if you can rig it – sometimes you can't. Sometimes you can leave enough gear for them to pull through those sections – it helps to leave long slings on the gear, but you need to explain to them / demonstrate how to do this aiding without pumping out, by doing a pull, then a rest on the belay, pull, etc... It also helps to show / explain on the ground how you can help them from above with a haul through short sections, but that they need to do what they can to help you, and explain you can't haul them the whole pitch. Definitely learn how to set up and do a 1:1 haul off of your harness and a progress capturing set up that is a full strength belay, which is much more efficient than any sort of mechanical advantage system. You can rig it off of even a hanging belay with slings for stirrups. (Set you belays so that this will be possible.) You can also teach them a basic system for ascending a rope with a couple of prussiks and slings, and then have them climb your second rope / tag line while you keep belaying them up if you leave that line right on the climb, with directionals.
5- If you are building anchors with someone who you don't know is solid, make every anchor one you can belay off directly and haul off. You need to know how to escape the belay with a load releasing hitch of some sort (or a tied off gri-gri), descend the tensioned rope with prussiks, or the equivalent, so you can get to where you can see and talk to them without yelling, and then be able to re-ascend the rope back to the belay and either lower them, haul them, or belay them if you have succeeded in explaining what they need to do to get through a tough section. You should also be able to set a secondary belay on the tied off rope so that you can belay them up a bit from where you can see them before reascending, and be able to do so without compromising their belay, – this can be complicated – practice it.
6- At least know how to pass a knot on a lower. Sometimes you can tie two ropes together and lower someone all the way to the ground even from three or four pitches up.
7- Do many years of guiding first, so that you know more than technical techniques. You also need to learn how to read different people, anticipate what will cause them problems and have experience with the different tactics that work with different types of people when you have to talk them through something that is freaking them out or just beyond what they think are their physical abilities. In my experience, most meltdowns are not catastrophic and hopeless unless you exacerbate the situation by losing your own cool. Usually a person who can not successfully do the moves free is relieved and even a little proud of learning how they can get through a section with some aid, cooperating with a mechanical assist, or something else. Usually a person who is panicking ends up being relieved and even a little proud of finding that they can get themselves under control eventually and keep moving. You part in that is often just getting to where you can talk to them rather than yelling from 100 feet up, and exhibiting a little patience and empathy – even if you know you need to keep moving for the sake of safety. Don't be a jerk or use their problem, whatever it is, as an opportunity to get in some criticism of them, make yourself look big in comparison, or anything else along those lines. That is important to being a good person, but also often important to getting them to do what you need them to do for the safest outcome. Having some idea about what tactics might work with someone is not the same as trying to diagnose them and explain to them what their "real" problem is, which is something only a-holes do when their partner is having a hard time.
8 – Be sure before you start that they have sufficient layers to stay warm if the temps drop and the winds pick up. Getting cold freaks out some people on routes.
9 – Carry some extra stoppers, webbing and rap rings that you can leave for anchors if you have to.

gavinsmith wrote:I've been the dehydrated, hungry, sweaty, and pissed off second who can't seem to remember how to use his hands or feet at all. 7 pitches up, if I recall correctly, 5.9ish dihedral that should have been no trouble at all.

Thanks for the story. I had a freak-out similar to this once before and I was the one deciding to retreat. Maybe we all have had this experience?

patto wrote:Simple rule, don't do big stuff or get out of sight when you are with a noob. Ultimately if you have a noob melt down it is more your fault. Avoid taking people outside their limits.

It's sometimes hard to know what will give your partner anxiety and when it will happen. The route we did was not big (it was two pitches) and it wasn't hard (it was 5.4). I've climbed with this person for about a year and was pretty surprised at the meltdown (we both were surprised, actually). I stayed calm and felt fine dealing with the situation, but was curious to hear stories/advice on how others have dealt with situations such as this.

Thanks rgold and md3! Good stuff there!

Bob Johnson wrote:Thanks for the story. I had a freak-out similar to this once before and I was the one deciding to retreat. Maybe we all have had this experience?

I wouldn't be surprised. Probably more so by those of us who were lucky enough to have a mentor at one point or another. The partner this happened with was vastly more experienced than myself (this was towards the beginning of my experience with trad), and at the time, preferred routes that were a bit beyond my comfort level then in length and sometimes difficulty.

We can all end up beyond our comfort level. And retreating is a sensible course of action. Hopefully melting down/freaking out doesn't occur though.

I've certainly retreated from some scary climbs and some other sketchy outdoor adventures.

Tie em off

Take a nap

Thats all there is to it

;)

Bob Johnson wrote:Has anyone actually used a 3:1 to haul their partner?

Yes, hauled my brother in law who weighs 30lbs more than me, but only for a few feet. Had a good ledge though, so it was all in my legs.

Bob Johnson wrote:Has anyone actually used a 3:1 to haul their partner?

Yes, but only with a good ledge to stand on and for the crux 15 feet or so of a pitch. Still fairly exhausting.

Stich wrote:Jean Paul Satre would also point out that you, the leader, can simply untie from the rope and throw yourself off.

Hell is other people

docsavage wrote:It's funny, my first trip to Yosemite I had a partner get so pissed at me he actually took me off belay ... the climb was Moby Dick Center & fortunately there was another friend standing close by ... he quickly put me back on belay & then acted as a kind of counselor between us as I finished the pitch ... I later put the experience in a short story called 'Captives' where two climbers end up in a battle of wills over a multi pitch route, doing passive aggressive things to each other & such ... the story ends with the narrator doing something along the lines of what Stich suggests, unroping & soloing away leaving his partner behind ... I think it was meant as a metaphor or something...

If I ever had a "partner" that intentionally took me off belay...He better fucking pray to every god there ever fucking ever was that he never ever ever sees me again...

Bob Johnson wrote:Has anyone actually used a 3:1 to haul their partner? I've set this system up (also a 6:1) several times and unless you have a straight shot towards your partner (no zig-zagging or rope running over a rock edge), it's practically impossible to lift your second. When have you had any success with it? I think hauling someone up an entire pitch is ridiculous.

Try a 5:1, not as much friction as a 6:1 and more advantage than a 3:1

In 59 years of climbing, including about 4 years of professional guiding that included several total meltdowns, I never had to actually haul anyone up any distance at all. Some very tight ropes, yes, but hauling, absolutely not.

What isn't going to work, unless you are very lucky, is some improvised 5:1 system. First of all, if you rig it with carabiners, the friction in the hauling system immediately puts you down to 3:1, and if the rope bends around rock surfaces or protection points, there's a fair chance there will be no mechanical advantage at all. So you'll pull and nothing will happen.

But suppose you are lucky and the system actually works. Unless you are on a big ledge or the top of the climb, you aren't going to have much stroke length. The best you can do with the usual 5:1 improvisation is a 2 foot stroke length, assuming you rig the 2:1 part with a double-length runner as in

from ncmountainguides.com/blog/h…. (The picture shows a single-length runner, affording at best a one-foot stroke.)

But you won't be able to utilize the available two-foot stroke unless you can position yourself above the power point, so what is more likely is that you'll only get, say, an 18" stroke. Even though you only have at best 3:1 pulling power, you still have a 5:1 system, so your 18" stroke would raise the second about 3.6". There is usually some give in the progress capture system that might lose you an inch, so that means each stroke raises the second 2.6". If you need to raise your second ten feet, it will take 46 strokes.

Go into a gym, pick up a 60 lb dumbell, and lift it from full extension to your chest 46 times to get a sense of the effort involved in raising a 180 lb climber ten feet. Don't forget, if this is a multipitch climb, that you still have to get yourself and the second up all the remaining the pitches after what for most people will have been an exhausting effort.

But it gets worse if you listen to some of the prevalent advice, which suggests progress capture devices like your guide plate in upper-belay mode or a Garda hitch. There is so much friction in these devices that the main rope actually binds during the lift and doesn't contribute to the mechanical advantage. If you don't believe this, watch how one of the load strands in the following video goes slack when the hauling happens:

youtube.com/watch?v=e9JSZSf…

So the 5:1 system becomes theoretically 4:1, at least for part of each stroke, and with carabiner friction but before any rock and protection-point friction, about 2.8:1.

If for some reason (not a second meltdown!) you have to haul and can't use the drop-loop method, then the only sensible approach is a 2:1 bodyweight haul of the sort perfected by big-wall climbers (whose bags, however, are not usually 180 lbs!) David Coley has an account at multipitchclimbing.com/ Chapter 13 (Self Rescue) Section 11 (A Hauling System that Actually Works).

Bob Johnson wrote:Has anyone actually used a 3:1 to haul their partner? I've set this system up (also a 6:1) several times and unless you have a straight shot towards your partner (no zig-zagging or rope running over a rock edge), it's practically impossible to lift your second. When have you had any success with it? I think hauling someone up an entire pitch is ridiculous.

I've hauled a heavy partner (230lbs) on a direct (no mechanical advantage) over a short overhung section where he lost contact with the wall and I didn't feel like messing with the autoblock to lower. Got a stance below the autoblock, clove hitched a sturdy stick with the loose end, and did rows with him until he could pull back on.

I mostly did it because he said I couldn't and that I should just lower him. Good times.

If they are fairly close to the belay you can loop the belay side of the rope down to them and they can pull themselves up (or past a crux).

tried pulling a friend who is a guide over a short roof with a 3 to 1 and it did not work. isa and I played arround with it a bit and it certainly helps if you are out of gas but she could not pull me up anything unless I helped.

April 1986. You could camp out in Black velvet Caynon. The bolts were all 1/4" split shafts and we did not even know that they were supposed to be scary in sandstone except for the ones that looked like they were falling out. We camped in the caynon for about a week doing a bunch of really fun stuff. I had led the Gobbler late in the day. Thought it was a bit spicy. Modern book now has it at 10b R. no mention of the R in the book back then. just a simple 5.10 rateing. Anyways we decended a common rap route. We get to the last station and it is a diveing board to a 150ft free hanging rap. The coupple there before us was haveing a complete relationshit meltdown. She was terrified to commit to the free hanging rap,he was being an asshole about it and the guy girl shit was makeing it worse by a factor of 10. Everyone is waiting on this poor girl and it's getting dark. This was in the days before everyone had headlamps so we are all getting a bit stressed out. Finally he rapped in a huff, pulled his ropes and hiked back to the campsite. Charlie and I rigged our ropes and gently talked her into backing over the edge. we all got down just as it got dark. I remember it was a bit exciteing backing over that edge. Fireworks flew in the campsite that evening and they were gone in the am. She should have ditched him and stayed with us;)

Nick Goldsmith wrote:April 1986..... Everyone is waiting on this poor girl and it's getting dark. This was in the days before everyone had headlamps so we are all getting a bit stressed out. Finally he rapped in a huff, pulled his ropes and hiked back to the campsite. Charlie and I rigged our ropes and gently talked her into backing over the edge. we all got down just as it got dark. I remember it was a bit exciteing backing over that edge. Fireworks flew in the campsite that evening and they were gone in the am. She should have ditched him and stayed with us;)

Wow, he left her at the anchor without a rope? What a D!cHead!

Yup...

Life. Where you take the test first and then learn your lesson. Just curious, are you still on speaking terms with the person you drug up a climb over their head.

Bill M wrote:Life. Where you take the test first and then learn your lesson. Just curious, are you still on speaking terms with the person you drug up a climb over their head.

Yes. Still friends.

Bill M wrote:Life. Where you take the test first and then learn your lesson. Just curious, are you still on speaking terms with the person you drug up a climb over their head.

That may be part of the problem. Climbing through a crux is much more difficult when drugged.